Via Morphcat Games: Digital version [of Micro Mages for NES] released! Links to a ROM and a version on the Steam store were sent to backers very late Tuesday night, along with a PDF instruction booklet. Since I couldn't wait for the cartridge I booted it up and tried it for a little bit and was largely very impressed so far. The cartridges should be shipping next week.

I got to put in some time with the ROM (since the cartridge hasn't shipped yet) using an NES Classic Controller hooked up to an 8BitDo Gbros. Adapter - so it's technically using official hardware. I would best describe it as a distant cousin of Ice Climber with four players (if you have a Four Score, NES Satellite, AVS, or Analogue NT.) It's pretty simple and seems like a game you wish you had in arcades 35 years ago - your little tiny pixel wizard can jump off walls, shoot magic, and attack various goblins, ghouls, and goats while climbing auto-scrolling vertical platform game stages until you eventually hit a boss every few levels. Visually it looks a lot like Shovel Knigiht, colorful and easy to see. The story is classic "rescue the princess" but about 12 seconds in you won't bother thinking about it as it's rather engaging.

Donkey Kong Jr. is an arcade classic. Clu Clu Land is an amusing and fun Pac-Man clone in which a balloon has to dig up gems while avoiding sea urchins. Vs. Excitebike is not Excitebike, which is already on the platform, but rather one of two Vs. versions which should have some tweaks and possibly different music.

We're taking donations for server costs! Really. One of the rewards is Q&A a few days early - you can read next Monday's installment as soon as it's ready, which can be as early as 12:01 AM my time on Monday!

If you've got a dollar a month to share, please Visit the Galactic Hunter Patreon and help cover our server costs. I'll still put in hours of work, writing, photography, and research for you - I just need some help making sure that the site costs me only time, and hopefully not money. Thanks for your support!

From the look of things, it's a plug-and-play HD solution to your old gaming hardware - things like this for Dreamcast (VGA games only) and Wii are already out there. This may be the first mass-release item of this kind for cartridge-based game consoles, not counting some of the boutique higher-end cables available from the likes of HD Retrovision. Depending on compatibility with other add-ons, this might also solve the 32X dilemma for many fans.

"2018 marked the 40th anniversary of legendary studio SNK! To celebrate this extraordinary milestone, a variety of classic arcade games from SNK's golden age are coming back together in one anthology on Xbox One. SNK 40th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION is packed full of retro games and a treasure trove of features! "

Also available: GIGA WRECKER ALT. and Puyo Puyo Champions. And a lot more, including pre-orders.

Via Walmarts and Amazon stores: Imaginext Series 12 Mystery Figures Are Hitting Stores Now. So far I've only seen them at some larger Walmart stores for under $3 each - and while that is an Amazon affiliate link, I would advise you hold off and buy them at retail. Each one has an embossed number on the back of the back, top-left corner, to identify who is who.

And if you're me, you're wondering where the Masters of the Universe are in this whole mess. Surely a He-Man or Skeletor or Beast Man would be good fits in this format? I've picked up the Clawtron and Big Robot and can highly recommend both - both share a lot of body parts and accessories with existing toys, but the Big Robot has a main entrance on its crotch, and who doesn't love that?

We're taking donations for server costs! Really. One of the rewards is Q&A a few days early - you can read next Monday's installment as soon as it's ready, which can be as early as 12:01 AM my time on Monday!

If you've got a dollar a month to share, please Visit the Galactic Hunter Patreon and help cover our server costs. I'll still put in hours of work, writing, photography, and research for you - I just need some help making sure that the site costs me only time, and hopefully not money. Thanks for your support!

Via Game-Tech: Woozle’s GBA Consolizer kit! Links to a ROM and a version on the Steam store were sent to backers very late Tuesday night, along with a PDF instruction booklet. If you can solder, this gizmo can add HDMI output and a Super NES controller (or 8Bitdo's Super NES receiver) to the portable, making it a game console for your TV. Hence the name.

You can slap it to a GameBoy Advance or stuff the guts of the portable into a special console box which looks pretty snazzy. I lack the skills and tools, but would be very interested in buying this or something like it if pre-built or an FPGA solution. The kit is about $170 and you have to supply the GameBoy Advance, but the demo units look remarkable.

Via iam8bit: Earthworm Jim 1+2 (25th Anniversary Edition)! The Playmates/Interplay/Whatever game duology is coming out for $134.99 in udder pink or black and white cow print cartridges. 2,000 total are to be produced with a fancy box and only 100 of the cow print version randomly inserted. Given the high price tag - original cartridges of the first couple of games are usually in the $20ish-$30ish range - it follows their pattern of rereleasing popular, common games for collectors, not unlike Rhino Records.

Previous iam8bit rereleases include Street Fighter II, Mega Man 2, and Mega Man X - each of which had significantly higher runs and similar special packaging with cartridge variations inside. Pre-orders for Earthworm Jim begin May 21 for delivery in November.

The game has been previewed by retro review folks on YouTube and at press time is already funded with 29 days to go - so get it if you like, it's already supported. A ROM is $10, the cartridge is $60 or higher depending on if you want extras like the Super NES Mouse adapter.

The Curse of Illmoore Bay follows a kid kicking and jumping through a Halloween-night town filled with monsters, and the music goes from that rotten Genesis-specific grind to pretty decent not-quite-MIDI-ska. A bare cartridge is $30-$40, a boxed game is $60, and there are fancy editions for those who need such things. More importantly, the campaign does have a link to a demo ROM so you can try it on your Everdrives or jailbroken Mega Sg or what have you.

If you haven't seen it, you can play 1 or 2 players with anime girls gobbling up rice balls from a floating person in the sky. It plays sort of like a simplified version of the Puppy Love stage of Earthworm Jim 2 or Game & Watch Fireman or countless other similar games - they throw, you catch. It sold for 6,000 yen and I am unsure where one can actually buy a cartridge at this time, but I will say the demo ROM was fun.

We're taking donations for server costs! Really. One of the rewards is Q&A a few days early - you can read next Monday's installment as soon as it's ready, which can be as early as 12:01 AM my time on Monday!

If you've got a dollar a month to share, please Visit the Galactic Hunter Patreon and help cover our server costs. I'll still put in hours of work, writing, photography, and research for you - I just need some help making sure that the site costs me only time, and hopefully not money. Thanks for your support!

You can get anything these days. It's already funded - standard caveats apply - and can be played on Macs and PCs. There are boxed versions, USB, floppy discs, the works. It's amazing, but here we are. There's definitely a growing market for old computer and console software... and records, and VHS tapes, and whatever else your increasingly old butt liked as a kid.

The campaign has 10 days to go if you want in on this. Shipping is expected spring 2020.

The original Dinosaucers series was something of an oddity. It was a typical kiddie good-versus-evil-gang-fight cartoon with 65 episodes, toyetic characters and vehicles, and no real merchandise to speak of in the USA. Some stuff got out in Brazil - as is life - but Americans never saw the prototyped Lewis-Galoob toyline. The brand has been dormant until last year's Lion Forge comic book 5-issue mini-series, which I had no idea existed. Well, now you know.

The show has a generally unremarkable cast and storyline, but did enjoy some bizarre puns of high-grade dad joke stock. "Reduced for Clarence" came about as a misunderstanding regarding a clown and a shrink ray with the bad guys not understanding how a sales rack worked. Also notable, the chief villain Genghis Rex was voiced by Dan Hennessey. He was a busy guy, playing the likes of King Gorneesh, Uncle Gundy, RoboCop, and a lot of other characters from cartoons and TV shows from which you probably own action figures.

Via the TIA (they handle Toy Fair): Trump's Latest Tariffs Threaten the American Toy Economy - Help Us Push Back! Regardless of your political interests, this one hurts you - a 25% tax on Chinese-made toys is very likely to be a thing in the near future. The Toy Industry Association has a form letter you can fill out to your representative and senators, and unless you relish the idea of your $20 6-inch collector figures getting to be $25-$30 real quick, it might be a good idea to read up on this.

Almost every toy I review on this site, buy for my collection, or sell at work comes from China. A small quantity of items - Transformers, mostly - come from Vietnam, and a smattering of items are made in India and Mexico, with little more than board games and puzzles tending to be manufactured in the USA.

While it is possible things may not go through, and that the industry will continue to shift and diversify manufacturing outside of China, nothing is certain. With toy stores in a ditch, kids moving toward electronics at a younger age, and the action figure generation aging out of collecting, this isn't the kind of news anybody in any part of the business wants to hear. (Except maybe for the Transformers brand team, or the Nerf blasters made in India, or the Indonesian Hot Wheels.)

" Konami's Castlevania Anniversary Collection traces the origins of the historic vampire franchise. Included is a unique eBook with details provided by developers, artists and others inspired by the Castlevania legacy which sheds a fresh light into the world of Castlevania. Released as part of the Konami 50th Anniversary celebration, relive these timeless classics that helped define the platformer genre. From the Belmont clan to their extended bloodlines and allies, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection is the best first step for anyone to take into the world of Castlevania and the fight against Dracula!"

Via Play.date: Playdate. A new handheld gaming system.. Hot on the trail of the Ouya's store going down - meaning all "phone home" applications will cease to function shortly - is a new portable hand-crank powered game system. The $149 console boasts 12 weekly game releases included and is due to ship in early 2020. "Stock will be very limited," they claim, but new game hardware tends to be as production ramps up. From news coverage, it appears it may not have a backlight - a design flaw harped on even by the most loyal GameBoy fans from 1989 to about 2003.

The future of gaming tends to center around the notion that you don't own anything, that physical media is dead, and there's nothing to sell when you're done with it - so hey, a new game console. I'll wait and see - after the Ouya and GameStick, plus the dying of downloadable game stores over time, I'll be sitting back to see more about how this works myself. Considering both Hyperkin and Retro-Bit have (so far) both failed to deliver on simple GameBoy clone hardware, for the time being I'll stick with my old GameBoys.

For the portable fiend, I would also remind you that KongFeng's GB Boy Colour (GameBoy Color clone) is under $40. And color. I admire the Playdate crank/analog controller, but I will need some serious convincing to buy one.

Via Polymega: Shop Consoles, Modules, and Accessories. The multi-platform not-a-Retron is up for pre-order. A fully tricked-out unit with all modules and controllers lets you play cartridges and CDs from NES, Super NES, Genesis, 32X, Sega CD, TurboGrafx-16, Turbo CD, and a few other variants... for about $500.

Early impressions have been good - it even plays Sega Saturn CDs! - but final hardware and final emulation has not, as far as I've read, been completed yet. Will it be good? For that price one might hope, but I'm holding off for final in-hand impressions before going near it. It seems like a handy idea though. So far as I can tell, it does not have RBG/S-Video support or a way to plug in original Playstation or Saturn controllers as of yet, though.

We're taking donations for server costs! Really. One of the rewards is Q&A a few days early - you can read next Monday's installment as soon as it's ready, which can be as early as 12:01 AM my time on Monday!

If you've got a dollar a month to share, please Visit the Galactic Hunter Patreon and help cover our server costs. I'll still put in hours of work, writing, photography, and research for you - I just need some help making sure that the site costs me only time, and hopefully not money. Thanks for your support!

The game itself is also included in the campaign, as is a Tiger-style LCD game as a stretch goal. The figure has an ETA of November, which is either optimistic or means they're pretty far along - the boat from China tends to take roughly 6 weeks depending on the ports and traffic.

16bit.com is best not viewed in Apple's Safari browser, we don't know why. All material on this site copyright their respective copyright holders. All materials appear hear for informative and entertainment purposes. 16bit.com is not to be held responsible for anything, ever. Photos taken by the 16bit.com staff. Site design, graphics, writing, and whatnot credited on the credits page. Be cool-- don't steal. We know where you live and we'll break your friggin' legs.